1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to the field of illumination, and more particularly to a portable multiple light-emitting diode light source that is especially adapted to be adjustably supported directly upon a vehicle exterior. The invention has particular utility in the field of paintless dent removal, a specialized technique to repair dents without requiring painting the repaired area. Many different sheet metal objects may be repaired using this technique, the most common which is automobile bodies such as may have been damaged by hail or minor impacts. Other objects may be repaired as well, including without limitation, airplanes, recreational vehicles, metal trailers, boats, building siding, building doors and panels, and appliances.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the fabrication of many different apparatus, there is almost always consideration for weight, appearance, cost, strength, and durability. When all of these factors are important, appropriately finished sheet metal provides each of these benefits better than other materials. Both steel and aluminum sheet metal is surprisingly strong, readily stamped or formed to many different shapes, very light weight, and for equivalent strength, generally of lower cost than a typical plastic. When appropriate finishes are used, the sheet metal can have an extremely long life, even when fully exposed to an exterior environment. As a result, sheet metal is widely used as the surface skin on land vehicles, boats, buildings, appliances, and aircraft. To improve appearance and durability, a finish such as a paint or other coating is typically applied to the sheet metal.
As may be appreciated, for the same reasons as described above, most sheet metal is relatively thin, which helps to minimize material cost, manufacturing cost, and weight. Unfortunately, this same relatively thin sheet metal is susceptible to denting. Hail, rocks, or other small objects may fall upon or be impelled into the sheet metal. Other objects may also collide with the sheet metal. For example, objects may accidentally fall or be dropped onto the sheet metal, vehicles may accidentally bump an adjacent vehicle, shopping carts may roll across a parking lot into a vehicle, and storms may carry damaging hail or throw objects through the air.
These collisions will usually result in the visible deformation of the sheet metal. One method of repair is to simply remove damaged sheet metal and install a new replacement sheet. However, such replacement can be extremely expensive, both in the purchase of replacement parts and in the labor involved. Frequently, these replacement panels will not only need to be installed, but they will also need to be painted or otherwise refinished to match the finish of the adjacent sheet metal. Furthermore, depending upon the age and make or model, there may not even be a replacement available.
Where the finish or paint is undamaged, or only shows very minor damage, there are a number of competing options available to repair the damage. One traditional approach is to press any protrusions in, and then fill any indentation with a filler material. The filler is cured, sanded, and then painted to match the pre-existing finished surface. However, dent repair using filler is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and difficult to precisely match with the existing finish. In other words, the filler texture is generally imperfect, and will not match that of the underlying sheet metal. If the textures do not match, then for exemplary purposes the original finish may be a high gloss finish, and the texture from the filler may be a dull matte. To overcome this limitation, there are repair materials that are applied in multiple layers, such as various primer layers, with the final layer having a composition designed to cure and sand to attempt to match that of the surrounding metal finish. Unfortunately, this adds even more time and labor. Further, even when the surface finish matches, the new paint will often still be extremely difficult to match to an existing paint. While color is difficult enough, matching the more modern finishes that include metal flakes can be nearly impossible, owing to the variability in the amount of flakes in the paint at the time of original and repair application, and the variability of the orientation of the flakes in the cured paint.
Filler materials used to repair dents do not expand and contract the same way as the underlying metal. Furthermore, at the time of repair or developing later, there may be microscopic separation between the filler and sheet metal. This can lead to corrosion of the underlying metal, or cracking or separation of the filler subsequent to the repair. As a result, filler does not normally have the long term durability of the original sheet metal and finish, particularly in the more harsh climates.
Preferably, minor sheet metal dents will instead be repaired without any need to alter or reapply the surface finish. The techniques using this approach are generally referred to as paintless dent repair (PDR). PDR is accomplished by either pushing out a concave dent from the inside, pulling a concave dent from the outside using hot glue, or pushing in a convex dent from the outside. Where PDR is possible without repainting or damaging the original finish, the repair will be perfectly matched, since the original finish remains undisturbed. As long as the tools and techniques used do not harm the panel interior or exterior, the panel will remain as durable as the original panel. As a result, removing dents using paintless dent repair can be extremely effective when compared to the alternatives of either removing and replacing damaged sheet metal, or using filler and subsequent surface sanding and painting. PDR is particularly suited for the repair of hail damage, since hail often does not harm a metal finish, instead only deforming the underlying sheet metal.
Various dent-removing tools and methods are illustrated and known in the prior art. Exemplary patents, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference, include: U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,804 by Cook, entitled “Tools for paintless dent repair”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,244,086 by Hopf et al, entitled “Hand tool alignment device and method”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,854,862 by Hopf, entitled “Adjustable light”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,957,561 by Contreras, entitled “Apparatus for paintless dent removal”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,104,108 by Roche, entitled “Dent repair system and method”; and U.S. Pat. No. 8,322,877 by Merritt, entitled “Remotely positionable light”.
Since no filler materials are used in the paintless dent repair method, the original shape must be precisely restored for the repair to be non-detectable. In order to determine when the shape is restored, a technician will view the dents from a particular angle with the correct lighting. As those skilled in the art of PDR know, the light rays will most preferably run almost tangent to the object surface, similar to the first light of sunrise. This low angle brightly illuminates protrusions, and casts shadows into depressions. By positioning the light over a work area and adjusting the height and optionally the tilt of the light housing, the reflection of the light can be viewed across the work area. This enables the technician to easily see subtle disruptions of a surface.
Most preferably, there will be a bright region and an adjacent shadow created by the light source. It is at this transition of bright to dim that the technician will typically view the sheet metal surface. This makes positioning the light source more critical, to get this transition illuminating a particular dent. Since the light from a fluorescent source tends to be diffuse, and since the tubes tend to be relatively large, the light source tubes are typically positioned on the opposite side of a vehicle from the technician. This greater distance helps to accommodate the large tubes and diffusion of the fluorescent phosphors, but unfortunately forces the technician to move back and forth across this distance to reposition the light stand. While this may be minor for the repair of a single dent, when a vehicle has been hit many times by hail, this added time moving back and forth to readjust the light can be extremely time-consuming and frustrating. Furthermore, prior art light stands such as illustrated by Hopf in the '862 patent and Merritt, each incorporated herein above, are very large and clumsy, and also as noted undesirably difficult since the light source is generally some distance from the technician. There is a serious risk of damaging the vehicle finish if the light source is accidentally bumped or tipped, owing to the size and weight of the lights. Furthermore, these stands are only useful for passenger vehicles, and are not well adapted to other types of vehicles, or for other non-vehicular applications that could otherwise benefit from PDR.
As noted, one of the challenges of an ideal PDR light source is the sharp transition from light to dark. As the '862 patent by Hopf illustrates, an opaque strip may be run down the center between two fluorescent tubes. However, and as noted, the tubes are large, the light emanating therefrom diffuse, and the resulting fixture undesirably large.
A number of other patents illustrate various light modules, the teachings and contents of each which are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,093 by Himeno et al, entitled “Illuminating display device for use with a mosaic panel”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,793 by Stephens, entitled “Portable luminescent lighting system”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,210,818 by Luk et al, entitled “Flexible LED lighting strip”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,780,318 by Xiao et al, entitled “Flood lamp assembly having a reinforced bracket for supporting a weight thereof”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,922,372 by Li, entitled “LED street lamp”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,021,024 by Huang, entitled “LED lamp”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,038,320 by Sloan et al, entitled “Packaging for lighting modules”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,070,306 by Ruud et al, entitled “LED lighting fixture”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,075,152 by Chen et al, entitled “Hermetic light-emitting device”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,258,682 by Villard, entitled “High thermal conductivity packaging for solid state light emitting apparatus and associated assembling methods”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,360,616 by Li, entitled “Method for installing a secondary optical lens on a LED street lamp”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,382,340 by Boyer et al, entitled “Interchangeable lightiing”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,430,527 by Lai, entitled “Illuminating device and method for manufacturing the same”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,550,670 by Boyer et al, entitled “Interchangeable lighting”; and U.S. Pat. No. 8,622,592 by Liu et al, entitled “LED lamp with radiator and method for manufacturing the same”. However, these fail to teach how a module might be constructed to overcome the limitations of the prior art PDR illumination sources. One of the issues with LED light sources is the lens affixed to the actual diode. This lens determines the pattern of light emanating from the LED, and will typically have a relatively high dispersion angle. In standard illumination applications, this wide dispersion angle is beneficial, since the LED can then be used to illuminate a large area. For those applications requiring more focused light, those skilled in the art of illumination will provide additional lenses adjacent to the LEDs.
Exemplary patents that illustrate various LED arrays with one or more adjacent lenses, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference, include: U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,253 by Sjobom, entitled “L.E.D. light assembly”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,355 by You et al, entitled “Led illuminated lamp assembly”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,011,420 by Cok, entitled “Planar directed light source”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,572,046 by Mai, entitled “Structure of optic film”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,581,850 by Liao, entitled “Light guide plate and backlight module using the same”; U.S. Pat. No. 8,636,381 by Huang et al, entitled “Flexible light source module”; and U.S. Pat. No. 8,708,520 by Kubota, entitled “Illumination device and electronic apparatus”. Unfortunately, the design of a lens to form a suitable PDR light is undesirably complex, and in addition to cost also undesirably adds weight.
Additional patents, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference, illustrate various suction cup mounts: U.S. Pat. No. 1,569,041 by Shay, entitled “Trouble light”; U.S. Pat. No. 2,047,658 by Zaiger, entitled “Suction cup”; U.S. Pat. No. 3,240,525 by Wood, entitled “Vacuum device for handling articles”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,858 by Arai, entitled “Sucker for plate glass”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,724 by Monteiro, entitled “Portable light device for vehicles”; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,182,490 by Hsu, entitled “Structure of illumination apparatus”. Unfortunately, none of these illustrate or teach a non-marring mount that would be acceptable for use with a PDR illumination source.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,140,754 by Thuma et al, entitled “Transformable flashlight apparatus” illustrates a ball and socket flexible neck extending between a power source base and light, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference. While illustrated, there is no contemplation or teaching for a completely non-marring construction as is required for acceptable use with a PDR illumination source. U.S. Pat. No. 8,033,681 by Brass et al, entitled “LED work light”, the teachings and contents which are incorporated herein by reference, describes a rubber handle cover. While beneficial for the work light illustrated therein, there is no teaching for how this might be applied to a compact PDR illumination source. U.S. Pat. No. 7,648,259 by Lin, entitled “Lamp assembly” is additionally incorporated herein by reference for the teachings and contents found therein. In addition to the foregoing patents, Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition copyright 1983, is incorporated herein by reference in entirety for the definitions of words and terms used herein.